Jody Brown

Night sky photography a consuming passion

Jody Brown lives and works in Warburton (WA) as a innovations officer teaching film and photography with Indigenous people. Warburton is one of the most remote places in Australia: it's a nine hour road trip to get to the nearest airport at Ayers Rock.

Parts of this timelapse video were made on these journeys to and from the airport over the last 8 months.

His interest in timelapse started in 2009 while watching videos on Vimeo and YouTube - amazing scenes captured in a new and amazing format, all with standard camera equipment. Consequently, he built his first slider in an attempt to mimic the motion effects he was so enchanted by, but has since moved on and purchased a professionally made unit.

"I now use a combination of Dynamic perception slider and Emotimo 3 axis control for pan and tilt. They are portable and lightweight - great for hiking up to remote spots."

One of the major problems with DSLR cameras when shooting timelapse is 'flicker' - ever-so-slight variations in the exposure between frames. Gunther Wegner designed software called LR Timelapse which helped eliminate this.

"LR Timelapse is great for assembling images and working on blending from night to day, making the process a lot easier. I use a combination of Adobe After Effects and Adobe Light Room in addition to LR Timelapse to create the videos."

Preparation and maintenance are a constant when working in remote environments: being exposed to hot, dry and dusty conditions for long periods is potentially fatal for technology, and people.

"Take plenty of water and food, batteries, memory cards... and let people know where you are going and when you expect to come home.

"And do your research - for instance, I used a smartphone app to make sure that I was in the right spot at the right time to capture the Milky Way over Ayers Rock."